Aberdeen Sheffield Cardiff
‘There is something special about living in a place where you can come up and look down on where you live’
On Shared Ground Networks and Encounters Around The Margins of Community Heritage
Why do some people participate in heritage research projects and others do not? How can groups extend their communities of participation through their existing networks? How can groups communicate with and potentially work with people who may share their ground but not their interests or values?
On Shared Ground is a project connecting researchers and communities at the University of Sheffield, University of Aberdeen and Cardiff University. We are working with communities around Wincobank Hill in Sheffield, Caerau Iron Age Hillfort in South Wales and Bennachie in Aberdeen. On Shared Ground examines the connected and disconnected networks of community participation in heritage research. By ‘disconnected’, we are referring to groups or individuals on the margins and edges of communities who have connections and relationships with a specific heritage landscape, but are not currently involved in the production of histories, narratives and discourses relating to those sites. The interrogation of these ‘contested’ or ‘marginalised’ histories underpin this project. By mapping existing networks and promoting new encounters, we seek to empower community groups who have already developed collaborative relationships with universities to grow and enhance their own community networks, encouraging them to interact with other ‘users’ of local heritage spaces. Despite the historical significance of each site, for many, these histories are elusive or unknown. Caerau Hillfort, for example, is surrounded on three sides by the housing estates of Caerau and Ely. The ramparts of the hillfort are hidden beneath woodland, meaning that even those living on the fringes of the site, do not realise it is there. The interior of the hillfort is now largely pasture, but in its north-east corner is a thirteenth century church and graveyard – St Mary’s. The church was in use up to the 1970s, but it is now a ruin and has been the scene of some anti-social behaviour, including graffiti, vandalism and drug use. The housing estates that surround the hillfort are home to more than 25,000 people – the largest social housing estates in Wales. They were originally developed during the 1920s as ‘Homes for Heroes’ mainly for people returning from the Great War, but also for those needing re-housing from the overcrowded inner city areas of Cardiff. The hillfort at Wincobank tells a similar story. It borders the ‘Flower Estate’, the first social housing estate built outside of London, and, like Caerau, suffers from anti-social behaviour and perpetual misuse. In Aberdeen, in addition to researching the history of the site using traditional archaeological and archival methods, the project was founded on an interest in ‘engaging local people to create a long-term sustainable strategy for community involvement.’ Whilst historical parallels serve as a valuable backdrop, this project builds on existing methods of co-production at each site to connect with individuals and ‘communities’ who are less or un-likely to engage with heritage research, and are sometimes in direct contestation with dominant or prescribed narratives of the sites. In connecting with these groups, and mapping their relationship with the sites, we can work collaboratively across the layers of multiple and fragmented communities, to build up a more nuanced profile of the individual heritage landscapes.
Aberdeen Sheffield Cardiff
‘There is something special about living in a place where you can come up and look down on where you live’ On Shared Ground is a project connecting researchers and communities at the University of Sheffield, University of Aberdeen and Cardiff University. www.communityheritage.group.shef.ac.uk Project co-ordinator: Kim Marwood Publication design by: http://du.st
On Shared Ground Networks and Encounters Around The Margins of Community Heritage
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I was surprised that my memories were so accurate as I found the house and track up the mountain immediately. My daughter and I walked up beyond the tree line and I managed to reach Little Oxen Craig where we had Aberdeenshire spread out before us. Patches of sunlight moved across the landscape. It was a moving experience. My daughter and I both love growing things. My father passed on his passion for the countryside, which is maybe why I remember Bennachie so well. I was surprised that my memories were so accurate. The only thing I got wrong was Mither Tap (which always had a hat of cloud) wasn’t where I expected it to be. These are scraps of memory in a moment of time.
Sandstone Avenue. All the outworks are fading, the light showing through They raised a playground from the spoil heap. The old place, you wouldn’t know it.
The rope, the ladder: the soft fort, the short landing on bonded rubber.
We are surrounded. Willow warblers sound the wood, slow our defences. The land where Flower Estate had been demolished looked bleak with gate posts sticking up through the undergrowth and debris walking up in the woods we found a burnt out car abandoned ever since we have been picking up scrap metal and glass from the hill.
Two middle aged ladies told me about playing on the hill as children one even showed me scars from the scratches she got from the bushes, she sighed because she wants her children to have access to a place to have fun.
Heat at a standstill; It burns in the stone bank, then abandons the hill.
Unspoilt early childhood memories of playing in the woods and quarry before link road was built.
I always dreamt I would get married at St Mary’s church.
If you ran round the tree twelve times at midnight you would wait for something to appear.
In the 70s some children were told that the church was haunted. Many of us weren’t brave enough to venture too close.